A Change of Pace
by Sandpanther
Summary: Keisuke is challenged to a race. The only problem is his normal car is in the shop. Can he win driving an unfamiliar car?
1. Default Chapter

A Change of Pace  
By Sandpanther  
  
-----------------  
  
Disclaimer: This is a work of fanfiction. The characters and situations are copyrighted by Shuuichi Shigeno, and Kondansha Inc. No infringement is intended. The original characters are my own invention. Please do not redistribute this fanfiction without permission.  
  
-----------------   
"Hello? ... Yeah, what's up? ... Oh, so what's wrong? ... Oh. ... Uh-huh... So, what do you have to do to fix it? ... Oh. How long is that going to take? About a week? You're kidding, right? ... Hunh. ... Well, do what you have to do. ... Yeah, I'll talk to him about it. ... I dunno, but it's gotta get done, so just go for it. ... Right. Well, call me if anything comes up. ... Yeah, bye."  
  
Keisuke clicked off the phone and sighed. That was the call that he had been waiting for, but it wasn't the answer he had been hoping for. He hadn't thought too much about it when the "Fill Coolant" light had come on a few days ago. Checking the reservoir, the levels had been a little low. So he'd topped them off and didn't think anything more of it. The boost pressure being a little off had worried him more, but he had figured it would get taken care of during the normal set-up for the next Project D race. Yeah, right. When that damn "Fill Coolant" light had come back on two days later, he knew he had to get it looked at immediately. With a Project D race running just about every weekend, there was no way he was going to let it go and risk having something go wrong with the car at a bad time. He had taken it in to his mechanics immediately. The news after they had inspected it was not good. He shook his head. Returning his cell phone to his pocket, he wandered down the hall to his brother's room.   
  
His brother was seated in front of his laptop, concentrating intently. Hearing Keisuke enter, Ryousuke broke off from what he was doing and turned around.  
  
"So, they found out what is wrong with the car," Keisuke stated without preamble. He walked over to the bed and flopped onto it, frustration and annoyance clearly showing on his scowling face.   
  
"And?" Ryousuke asked. "What is it?"  
  
"The O-rings are cracked. They're going to have to pull the engine apart and replace them."   
  
"Hmm." Ryousuke half-turned back to his computer, and began to open windows on it. Over his shoulder, Keisuke could see one window that showed a schematic of a rotary engine, and he recognized the homepage for an RX-7 enthusiasts board in another window. Other, text-filled windows followed. Ryousuke skimmed the information displayed in several of the windows then said, "There have been some complaints that those O-rings are prone to break down and leak fairly easily on the FD model."  
  
"Yeah, but Aniki, my car's not that old. Why is it having a problem already?" Keisuke complained.  
  
Ryousuke glanced back over his shoulder before returning his attention to his technical data. "You have to admit that you drive it rather hard." He scrolled through one of the windows on his computer, and paused to read something there. After a moment he nodded briefly, as if what he read had confirmed what he was already thinking.   
  
"Since your car is a newer model, there isn't a large body of practical information on it yet. But all reports indicate that the main cause of the seals cracking is thermal breakdown. Going forward, we may want to see what we can do to try and reduce the engine operating temperature." He paused for a moment, lost in thought. "How long did they say that the repairs would take?"  
  
Keisuke sighed. "About a week. They said they're pretty busy right now, but they'll fit it in when they can. So... what do we do about D's race this week?"  
  
"That should not be a problem. I had just received e-mail from the other team asking to cancel this week's race. The rain is supposed to continue tomorrow and through the weekend, so there would be no point." Outside, rain poured down unrelentingly in one of the many summer storms that occurred at this time of year. If it followed normal patterns, there wouldn't be a significant break for several days. "So," Ryousuke continued, "we have a little over a week, possibly more depending on the weather."   
  
Keisuke heaved a sigh of relief. He couldn't race without a car, but... Canceling out of a race due to mechanical problems would not reflect well on the team. He didn't want to be the one responsible for causing that kind of a black mark on the team's record. The rain left an excuse for them to push the race off with no loss of face.  
  
"In the mean time, how were you planning on getting around? I am fairly busy with schoolwork at the moment, but I can arrange to be available for rides, should you need it."  
  
Keisuke shook his head. "Since Dad's gone at that conference for the week, I figured I'd borrow the Benz." He wrinkled his nose in disgust at the thought. He hated to drive the Benz. A gutless four-door automatic diesel sedan really was not his style. Still, a ride was a ride, and it beat having to walk in the rain.   
  
----------------------------  
  
Driving around town the next day, Keisuke was seriously considering revising his earlier opinion on how much this beat walking. He drove the Benz so rarely that he always forgot just how much he disliked it. The diesel engine smelled bad and sounded worse. But the annoyance and lack of cool it generated was far from his largest gripe with the car. The height of German luxury engineering, the car was designed to do as much as possible to isolate the driver from the mundane, technical details of driving and make it so that the driver was more someone who road along as a passive observer, rather than an active participant. To someone who was used to being able to precisely control every aspect of the vehicle, having the car's set-up minimize all the feedback from driving was infuriating, rather like constantly having someone jogging your elbow.   
  
The automatic transmission never could make up its mind. Every time he found a speed that he was comfortable at, it would inevitably be at a point in between the optimal gear ratio. Accelerate slightly, and *bump* it would shift up. If he lifted his foot from the gas even in the slightest and *thunk*, back down it would go. Try to get it to accelerate too quickly and it would drop down a gear and nearly red line while sounding like the engine was about to throw a rod. And compared to his FD, the car was heavy and unwieldy. It made him feel more like he was trying to direct a toboggan down the street. And most annoying of all... well, fundamentally, it just wasn't his car. Nothing could ever quite compare to his FD, and his casual ease and familiarity driving it.  
  
The light ahead of him changed to red, and as he reacted to stop, his left foot instinctively moved to put in a clutch that wasn't there. Half the time when he did that, he accidentally hit the brake pedal instead of the non-existent clutch. This was one of those times. The car abruptly jerked to a stop. Keisuke swore under his breath, and glanced in the rearview mirror to make sure that the car behind him was not about to rear end him. It looked like he was safe -- this time. This was just one more aspect of the car that did not endear itself to him. After a minute the light changed again, and he continued off down the road.  
  
He was driving along only half paying attention to the road ahead when suddenly a car pulled out of a driveway. Reacting without thinking, Keisuke slammed on the brakes -- once again, with both feet. This was getting old, he decided. In a fit of exasperation, he suddenly decided that he was tired of hitting the brake with both feet. If that left foot was so keen on doing something, then it could just control the brake all by its lonesome, rather than having it sit impatiently and do nothing while the right foot did all the work. At least this would give the left foot something to do other than twitch uselessly. And it would give him some small something to distract him as he herded this behemoth down the road.   
  
Several errands and several hours later Keisuke's left-foot braking technique had improved, but his temper had degraded noticeably. The bad mood had started about two minutes after he pulled the Benz out of the garage, and after that the day had just gone from bad to worse. Already prone to irritability, nothing seemed to go particularly right for him today. It was probably more that he was already feeling grumpy, but every little thing seemed to just get under his skin. And while having the car meant that he didn't have to walk everywhere, he did have to walk in the wet going between the car and the stores, so he was damp, and his shoes were soaked. Over time, the irritation that had started brewing from driving a car he hated had grown until he was genuinely grouchy. At least the pouring rain of the night before had inexplicably mellowed into drizzle, broken by scattered, though occasionally heavy, showers. He figured that it probably wouldn't last, and was just waiting for just the right moment to open up and start pouring again -- probably when it would be most annoying to him.   
  
Finally finished with the last of the errands that had to get done, he breathed a small sigh of relief and headed back to where he had parked the car. Getting in, he sat staring at the steering wheel, wondering what to do next. Glancing at the car's clock he was a little surprised to see that it was nearly eight o'clock. He had planned on being done a lot earlier but, well, it just hadn't worked out that way. Up until yesterday, he'd thought that he was going to be busy practicing for another race, so he had no other plans for the evening. He could just head home...? No, his brother had mentioned this morning that he was going to take advantage of the sudden free time to work late at school and get a little ahead. There wouldn't be anything particularly interesting to do at home other than listening to Tsugumi nagging him to clean up his room. Heading straight home didn't really appeal right now anyway. He needed to do something more active to work off the aggravation of the day. He thought about calling someone and seeing if they were up for hanging out or something. Wait, no. It was a Friday night, so they would probably all be heading up the mountain by now, if they weren't there already.   
  
Hmm, up the mountain...   
  
He ran there almost every weekday night, but since he was usually off on excursions with Project D on the weekends it had been months since he'd last been on Akagi on a Friday night when everyone would be there. While he certainly wasn't going to be up for any races tonight, he could at least head up and hang out with folks, check out the scene, and maybe decompress a little. Yeah, that could work.   
  
Plan formed, Keisuke started up the car and headed off toward Akagi.  
  
-----------------------  
  
By the time Keisuke arrived, there were a fair number of cars parked in the lot where everyone traditionally gathered. If the weather was good he would have expected to see a lot more people hanging out. But even despite the rain there were still representatives from the various teams that ran on Akagi, along with a few die-hard spectators determined enough to brave the periodic downpours to try and catch some action. Considering that the rain continued to pour at random intervals and drizzle almost constantly the rest of the time, it was surprising to see so many people out in the wet.  
  
Pulling into the parking lot, he immediately spotted Kenta in a group off to one side, gesturing emphatically as he talked to Fumihiro. He broke off when Keisuke pulled up, and both of them came over to greet him.  
  
"That's a change of pace for you, Keisuke," Fumihiro teased, nodding at the car.  
  
"Keisuke-san! Where's your FD?" Kenta asked, worry in his voice. "Did something happen to it?"   
  
Keisuke shrugged. "'S in the shop for some work." He didn't really feel like getting into the details with Kenta. Kenta had potential to be a good driver and generally wasn't a bad guy to hang out with, but after the day he had just had, Keisuke wasn't sure how much he could stand of Kenta's puppy dog-ish enthusiasm. He tried to change the subject with, "So, has anything exciting been happening? Who all is here tonight?"  
  
Distracted, Kenta launched into an energetic summary of who of interest was there and what all was going on.  
  
--------------------------  
  
Keisuke's arrival in an unfamiliar car had not been noticed by just his friends. Across the parking lot a tall, wiry individual wearing thin, wire frame glasses gestured toward the Benz.   
  
"Katou-san, look! Isn't that Takahashi Keisuke? I almost didn't recognize him, driving that."  
  
Standing next to him, Katou looked over to where his friend was pointing, and snorted contemptuously. "Check that out. Rich boy Takahashi Keisuke's trying out some new wheels. Who does he think he's impressing with that Krautmobile?" Contempt dripped from his every word.  
  
"Do you think he got rid of his FD? I can't imagine why he would, not a nice car like that!"  
  
"And replace it with that? Did you hear the racket it made coming up? That thing's a diesel. I bet it's even an automatic. How lame can you get? Nah, he probably crashed his car out on one of those fancy Project D races he's always out on and it's in the shop getting the dents banged out of it. He's just driving around in daddy's car until he gets his all prettied up. I can't believe he'd show his face here, though. Not with something like that." Katou glowered at the Benz for a moment, then switched his disapproving gaze over to Keisuke. His disdain melted as a thoughtful look crossed his face.   
  
"I bet without his FD, he ain't such hot stuff," he said, tentatively. "I bet I could take him, now."  
  
His friend looked worried. "Take him? You don't -- you don't mean race him, do you? He's Takahashi Keisuke!" His tone underlined the name, emphasizing it as if that alone explained everything.   
  
Katou seemed not to have heard him. Fully gripped by the idea, he got more and more excited the more he talked. "Yeah, spoiled little rich boy. His winning all the time is all about the car daddy's money bought him, and all the gas and tires he's wasted. Without that car, he ain't got nothing. Now's my chance to show that poofta for the spoiled wus he really is." He paused, a determined light glowing in his eyes. "I'm going to go show up that nancy-boy up once and for all!" he declared.  
  
"Katou-san, I don't think that's such a good idea..." His voice trailed off as Katou marched toward Keisuke and the Benz.  
  
--------------------------  
  
At first no one noticed the glowering young man with the severe buzz cut. But the conversation halted once Katou planted himself directly in front of Keisuke.   
  
Keisuke regarded the newcomer with annoyance. "Yeah, what do you want?" he said.  
  
"Takahashi Keisuke, I challenge you to a race," Katou declared, in a loud voice. Around them, all conversation died off as the spectators turned their attention to this new and rather interesting development.   
  
Keisuke favored Katou with a disdainful look. "No. You aren't worth wasting my time on, small fry." He turned away from Katou, and started to return to his previous conversation.   
  
Katou turned red and lowered his head until his neck vanished into his shoulders. "What's the matter? You gone chicken or something? You go off and do all that Project D stuff and you think you're too good to race folks from your own prefecture?"  
  
Kenta could not stay silent in the face of this affront to his hero. "How dare you speak to Keisuke-san like that! Don't you know who you're talking to? He's Project D's ace, he can't be bothered with small-timers like you. Besides, any moron could see that he doesn't have his car with him here tonight!"  
  
Keisuke cut him off. "If you really want to get beaten that badly, then name another time and place. Everyone around here knows I don't race on Akagi," he replied coldly.  
  
Katou wasn't about to let it go. "Some other place? What's wrong with here? Too little of a challenge for you, even with that?" He pointed a contemptuous finger at the Benz. He raised his voice slightly. "You're not fooling me. I think you're scared. I think you just don't want everyone to find out that without your expensive rich-boy car, you ain't nothing but a poser who couldn't outrace a tour bus!"  
  
Keisuke went very, very still. The crowd on the mountain all held their breath waiting to see what his response would be. The rain chose that moment to start up again, falling gently on the motionless scene.   
  
A moment later Keisuke's eyes narrowed. "Fine," he snapped. "I'll do your stupid race."   
-- End Part 1 


	2. A Change of Pace, Part 2

A Change of Pace, Part 2  
By Sandpanther  
  
-----------------  
  
Disclaimer: This is a work of fanfiction. The characters and situations are copyrighted by Shuuichi Shigeno, and Kondansha Inc. No infringement is intended. The original characters are my own invention. Please do not redistribute this fanfiction without permission.  
  
-----------------   
  
  
"I'll do your stupid race. One lap, downhill. First one across the finish line wins." Keisuke's flat tone left no room for argument.  
  
Katou snorted, and gave a self-satisfied half-smile. "Sure, whatever you want," he said. "Not that it matters. There's no way you can win."  
  
Keisuke favored him with a frosty stare. "I don't race losing battles, only losing drivers. Get your car and let's get on with this."  
  
Katou nodded, and walked off towards his car. As he went, the crowd of spectators parted before him. A few people called out to him from the galleries, and he waved or nodded to them.  
  
"Keisuke-san, are you sure this is a good idea?" Kenta asked in a concerned tone of voice. "His S-14 has to out-power that Benz. You'll never be able to keep up with him, especially not in this rain."  
  
"You're not one to talk there, Kenta," Keisuke pointed out. "Remember how your rain battle went?"   
  
"How can I forget?" Kenta looked like he'd bitten into a lemon. His frequent comments in had made it clear that he had not forgotten his humiliating loss on Myougi last summer to Akina's Hachiroku. The parallels between that race and this one did not escape him. Both races involved rain, and both had an underpowered car facing a much higher powered opponent. He had been the driver of the higher horsepower car in his rain battle, and it clearly still rankled that he had lost.  
  
Fumihiro looked at the two of them like a mother watching her two squabbling children. For a moment it seemed like he was going to scold them. But when he opened his mouth all he said was, "I know what you're saying, Keisuke. But that isn't your normal car. Are you sure you'll be all right?"  
  
"Don't worry. I can handle it." Keisuke did not seem to share Fumihiro's concern. "This is my home course. There's no way I'm going to lose to some uppity snot on Akagi. Anyway, I'm going to go get lined up so we can get this joke over with. You'll take care of the rest, Fumihiro?"  
  
Fumihiro nodded. "Don't worry, I'll take care of it."   
  
Keisuke walked over to the Benz and got in, while Fumihiro threaded his way through the spectators gathering at the starting line. Kenta watched as the pair walked away, a worried look on his face. "Keisuke-san..." he said.  
Minutes later, the two competitors were set at the starting line. Fumihiro directed them into position with a calm, competent air that showed he had performed this duty many times before. "Okay, okay." He waved one of the cars forward. "A little further. A little more -- okay, stop!" He gestured for the car to stop, then took a step back and looked to make sure the two cars were lined up evenly. Apparently satisfied, he nodded.  
  
"Ready?" he asked the drivers. They both nodded. "Okay, start in five!" He held up his hand, palm forward with fingers spread.   
  
Katou grinned. Holding the clutch in, he repeatedly revved his engine. His modified exhaust gave a low, powerful sound that vibrated the floorboards as the engine ran high, then dropped off. He shifted the car into first gear, then stared intently at Fumihiro.  
  
Using his left foot to hold down the brake pedal, Keisuke carefully picked up the revs on his car. The engine first hummed, then whined in response. When the tach reached the level he wanted, he held it steady and turned his concentration back to Fumihiro's countdown.  
  
"4... 3... 2... 1... Go!!" Fumihiro's hand swept down on the final count, flagging the start of the race. He stood motionless as Katou's Silvia S-14 flew past him, followed immediately by Keisuke's Benz. Once they passed, he turned and watched their progress as the Silvia pulled in front, the clear leader in the brief contest of speed heading to the first corner. First one car and then the other entered the first turn and disappeared from sight. For a moment Fumihiro stood motionless, oblivious to the rain, watching where the two cars had gone and listened as the sounds of tires squealing and engines screaming reflected noisily off the walls of the valley. Then he turned and headed back towards his car. Pulling out his cel phone, he punched up a number on the speed dial. "Hey, Ryousuke? Guess what your brother is up to."  
  
----------------  
The moment Fumihiro's hand dropped, Keisuke's foot flew off the brake. With the one force that was holding it back gone, the car surged forward. It wasn't exactly a speedy dash -- certainly nowhere near what his FD was capable of -- but it got the race rolling. As he mashed the accelerator to the floor, he briefly felt the rear tires start to lose traction and spin out on the rain-slick road. Modifying his acceleration to prevent traction loss, he cursed. This car didn't have the nice, sticky tires his FD did. Boring old long-life tires just didn't have the same grip that he was used to. He'd have to watch out for that. The thought drifted away into somewhere in his subconscious as he focused on the challenge of the road ahead of him. Carefully, he applied steady pressure to the gas, feeling for the point where the engine's power would start to surpass the tires' ability to hold the road.   
  
Ahead of him, the Silvia took the lead as they headed toward the first corner. No great surprise there. Keisuke knew that the Benz wouldn't be able to compete in flat-out acceleration. If this were a track, he would have had no hope. But this was a mountain road. Not just any mountain road, oh no. This was a mountain road that he practiced on every day. The other guy might have more horsepower than him, but there was no way he would know how to drive this road better. Not against him.  
  
By the time they hit the first corner the S-14 was a couple of car lengths ahead of Keisuke. He watched as the other car mis-judged how well his brakes and tires would slow him down in the rain and oversped slightly into the turn. Spray flew as the tires scrabbled desperately for traction. For a moment it seemed the car was going to lose its battle with inertia and slide out of control. Watching from behind, Keisuke could almost feel the Silvia's tires fighting for grip. But then gradually the tires regained their firm hold on the road, and the S-14 lumbered through the turn successfully, if not gracefully.   
  
He didn't have long to consider the poor cornering performance of his opponent though, since a moment later he was entering the turn himself. From past experience he knew that the first downhill turn on Akagi started with a long, easy left which was followed almost immediately by a sharp jag to the left. Coming up to the entrance of the turn, Keisuke hit the brakes to slow down. Starting into the turn, he let up slightly as he coasted into the easy entrance of the turn. The car understeered in much more than he had anticipated, lumbering heavily toward the outside in a way that he had not anticipated, nor intended. Fighting to keep the car on the line he had envisioned through the turn, he realized that he had miscalculated the car's momentum and had to lose more speed before entering the next turn. Slamming on the brakes hard, he felt the ABS kick in. For a long moment he worried that even so, he wouldn't be able to lose enough speed to execute the sharp entrance on the next turn.   
  
"Come on, c'mon, slow down already, you useless piece of crap," he muttered under his breath. He ignored the concrete wall looming steadily closer and focused on forcing the car along the line he wanted. After an agonizing moment the car slowed to a speed where he could navigate the turn. He cleared it safely. But he could tell that his miscalculation had cost him time. The car came out of the turn well off of where he usually would exit, and he could feel how badly his line had sucked. Not good. This Benz being the underpowered warthog that it was, he couldn't afford to lose time going through the corners. Tight cornering performance was his one ace in the hole.   
  
He spared a glance down the road to check how far along his opponent was. The other guy hadn't done so well with that turn himself, but he was now taking full advantage of the brief, relatively straight section to use his car's superior horsepower. Keisuke ground his teeth in annoyance. This was going to be a little more difficult than he had thought.  
  
-------------------------------------  
  
The ring of a cel phone cut through the quiet murmur of the study group. Picking up his phone, Ryousuke excused himself from the group and stepped outside to answer it. Clicking on the phone, he said, "Hello?"  
  
Fumihiro's voice greeted him. "Hey, Ryousuke? Guess what your brother is up to."  
  
Ryousuke paused and thought for a moment before answering. There were only a limited number of reasons why Fumihiro would feel a need to call and report to him on what his brother was doing. Of those, only one possibility seemed likely, though it seemed to him to be reckless, even by Keisuke's standards.  
  
"Keisuke challenged someone?" he asked.   
  
"Close," Fumihiro replied. "Someone challenged him, and he accepted. A one-lap downhill time trial."  
  
Downhill, Ryousuke noted. Good. That would minimize the difference in horsepower between the two cars. He had no doubt that no matter who had challenged Keisuke, they would have a car that could output more power than their family car. Which left just one critical variable. "Who challenged him?" he asked.  
  
"Some guy on the Akagi Thunders. He drives a red S-14."  
  
Ryousuke had always thought the Akagi Thunders was a particularly apt name for that team. They seemed to be more about creating noise and storm than about having any actual skill or talent. There was little to differentiate them from the dozens of other teams in the area that were named some variant of "Thunders". Off-hand, he didn't remember anything in particular about the S-14 driver on that team. Ryousuke made a mental note to check his database of race-related data for information on the driver. But since he had not previously taken special note of this individual, he thought it would be safe to say that the person in question was likely not a terribly good driver.   
  
"I don't remember that particular driver," he told Fumihiro. "Though the skill level on the Thunders is generally very low. That alone should count greatly in Keisuke's favor."  
  
Ryousuke could hear Fumihiro hesitate for a moment before asking, "Do you think Keisuke has a chance of winning this one? It's pouring rain up here right now, and the Benz isn't that impressive of a car. Certainly not against a Silvia."  
  
Ryousuke smiled slightly. "After everyone's experiences against Fujiwara's Hachiroku, we should have all learned never to underestimate an underpowered car if the driver is skilled. I don't believe the car shall be the deciding factor in this race. Keisuke's familiarity with Akagi alone should compensate for the difference. No, the critical factor in this race will be whether Keisuke can learn to control the Benz as naturally as he controls his FD."  
------------------------------------------  
  
If someone could have asked him right then, Keisuke would have agreed with his older brother's analysis. Driving the Benz around town had been an exercise in frustration. But it was nothing compared to trying to race it full-speed down a treacherous, rain-slick slope. Coming up to a turn, he tried to guide the car along the line that he was used to taking -- only to find that once again, the car did not respond the way he expected. Cursing, he jerked the steering wheel over as hard as he dared in the wet. He gently accelerated to try and get the balance back to where he instinctively knew it needed to be. The engine responded slowly, too slowly, to his demands for more power. The automatic transmission hadn't shifted down while he was braking, and was still in too high a gear to be ready for instant acceleration. It was perfect if he wanted to save gas. It sucked when he wanted power. He floored the accelerator, trying to get the speed he needed. With a jolt, the transmission dropped down a gear. The car jerked forward as the engine's power was suddenly pushed to through the to the wheels. He growled deep in his throat as, fighting for control, he cleared the corner well off of his chosen line, yet again.   
  
The one good thing he could say about the Benz was that the handling was better than he would have expected for a car that weighed several hundred kilos more than his FD, and accelerated like an enraged elephant. While he wouldn't exactly call the handling light and easy, it took only a minimum of effort to make fairly easy corrections with the steering. Between that and some deft accelerator work, he was starting to navigate the turns in a reasonably competent, if not terribly solid, manner. He was glad for all the careful accelerator work practice he had done since the race with that black FD. It was coming in real handy for him right now. Without that practice, he knew there would be no way he could control this car even to the level he was currently managing.  
  
---------------------------------------  
  
Fumihiro clicked off his phone. Glancing around, he was slightly surprised to find Kenta had walked up to him while he was on the phone with Ryousuke, and was now standing next to him, an open umbrella in one hand, talking on the cel phone held in the other hand. Fumihiro stuck his own phone back in his pocket, and waited while Kenta finished his conversation.  
  
"Ok, thanks for the info," Kenta said. "Tell us if you hear anything else." A moment later he hung up the call, and turned to Fumihiro. He stood there, phone still in hand, with a worried expression on his face.  
  
"That was the report from the overlook down below. They say that Keisuke-san is lagging behind. It sounds like the gap between them is getting bigger!" Kenta's tone was full of dismay. "I can't believe that guy is beating Keisuke-san. How can this happen?"  
  
Fumihiro nodded thoughtfully. "Ryousuke predicted that the Silvia would lead through the beginning section. He said that the first, tightly winding section would be the hardest for Keisuke."   
  
"That section? But, why?" Kenta asked, confused. "I've seen Keisuke drive that section millions of times before. He's insanely fast! I can only keep up with him when he lets me. With his amazing drifts, I think that's one of his best sections. Why would he start having problems with it now?"  
  
"He may be fast in his FD," Fumihiro replied. "But he's not driving the FD. The differences between that Benz and his FD are like the difference between shit and chocolate. The only similarity really is that they are both FR's. Other than that?" Fumihiro shook his head. "Keisuke is gambling everything that he can do this race like Fujiwara. (Though you'll never catch him saying that.) That Silvia might be able to out-accelerate him, but he's banking on his skill and knowledge of the course to let him take the corners faster. But even Fujiwara only does it in a car that he drives every day and knows thoroughly."  
  
The worry cleared from Kenta's face. "If Fujiwara can do it, then Keisuke-san can certainly do it!" Kenta declared confidently.  
  
Fumihiro shook his head. "I don't know about that. Never underestimate how much being unfamiliar with a car can hamper a driver. Until Keisuke learns the limits of the Benz, he won't be able to fully use his knowledge of the course and his speed through turns to catch up to the other guy. Everything depends on how quickly he can change his normal habits."  
  
"Keisuke-san can do it," Kenta repeated firmly. "Keisuke-san can do anything!"  
  
--------------------------------------  
  
  
Keisuke relaxed slightly as he slid out of the corner. That was the last tight corner for a while. It was also the first corner yet that he felt that he'd handled competently. Ok, so it was mostly because he had slowed down to speeds he would normally have considered pathetically pokey. It was annoying and frustrating, but at least he hadn't had to fight at the razor's edge for control the whole way through. And the way the car moved was finally starting to feel less unnatural, and more right. Maybe he couldn't drive the Benz with the same unconscious ease he drove his FD with. But it didn't feel quite so much like wearing clothes that were a size too small any more.   
  
Now that they were clear of the initial steep downhill section, the turns wouldn't be as sharp. He'd be able to take them at higher average speeds, with less braking. Having to slow down and then pick up speed again had been killing him, the acceleration on the Benz was that bad. But for the upcoming series of S-turns, all he'd need would be a little care with the steering and some decent timing coasting then hitting the gas.   
  
Or, at least it better. He needed to start making up time, badly. The tail lights of the other car had vanished somewhere a few turns back. If he had any chance of winning this race, he knew he needed get with the program and start driving this road smarter.   
  
Rain splattered against the windshield harder than before as both the intensity of the downpour and the car's speed increased. The road ahead of him got steadily harder to see as the overworked windshield wipers gave him a shorter and shorter slice of time with a clear view of the road ahead. As each swipe of the wipers pushed the rain clear, he fixed the picture of the road ahead in his mind, noting down the points where he would need to start braking or turning, and his current distance relative to them.   
  
Focusing on the road ahead, he slid through an easy right turn. He flew out of it exactly the way he had expected, and was already set up automatically for the left-hander directly after. The corners of his mouth lifted slightly in a self-satisfied smile. Yeah. That was more like it. The frustration and tension began to drift away, unimportant as he settled into a pattern of when to brake, to accelerate, to turn. His focus narrowed until all he knew was the rhythm of the road, the feel of the balance of the car, and the grip of the tires on the road.  
  
So focused was he on the pure experience of just driving that the sudden red flash of brake lights coming on not far ahead surprised him. He hadn't even realized that he had caught up with the other car until the driver hit his brakes. Keisuke smiled. Catching up had been easier than he had expected. Now the race would really get started. If he could just get past that guy...  
  
It only took a corner or two before he felt his satisfaction at having caught up to the Silvia turn to annoyed contempt. The moron ahead of him was driving like an idiot. Braking too early and too hard, taking a lame line through the turns-- it was forcing his own rhythm to be thrown off, having the twit so close in front of him. It was like having to take baby steps to avoid stepping on some slowpoke.   
  
Judging from the guy's braking patterns, he'd probably mis-judged his braking timing too many times, or not compensated enough for how the rain would effect braking and steering. Now he was massively over-compensating by braking too early and slowing too much. No wonder it had been such a snap to catch up to him.   
  
With a snarl, Keisuke braked harder than he had intended to entering a turn, forced to in order to avoid hitting the other car. He watched in disgust as the Silvia floundered slowly through yet another easy turn -- one which he personally would not have bothered braking on, not even in this car. This is pathetic, he thought. If I can just get in front of him, this would be all over.   
  
Mentally reviewing the road ahead, Keisuke tried to come up with a plan that would let him pass the moron in front of him. One possibility occurred to him. It wasn't anything fancy, but it had a chance of working. He gave a mental shrug. It was worth a shot.  
  
For the next several turns, Keisuke held back intentionally and waited for the situation he wanted. Carefully holding the accelerator just short of the point where he knew from experience the automatic transmission would shift, he watched as the incompetent Silvia lumbered into yet another turn. Without slowing, he entered just behind the Silvia -- but at a much higher average speed! His additional momentum shot him out of the turn faster than the slower car ahead of him, allowing him to pull up next to the leading car, all set up to take the outside for the next turn they were heading into.   
  
---------------------------------------  
  
Katou glanced nervously at the rearview mirror. The Benz was still hanging right there, right where it had latched onto his tail a couple of turns back. He still couldn't believe it was there. He thought for sure he'd had the race in the bag earlier, once the headlights had disappeared from his mirror. But now they were back, closer than ever before. How had he done that? He knew that spoiled rich boy was driving a dog of a car. That was why he had issued the challenge for this race -- because he knew that even the famous Takahashi Keisuke couldn't win in some slow old European luxury sedan that was built for just showing off how rich the owner was, not for speed. Katou wondered if maybe he had miscalculated? Maybe there was more to that Benz than met the eye? There had to be -- how else could this be happening otherwise?  
  
He shook his head. No, I gotta focus on getting ahead again now, he thought. He'd pulled in front once, so he had to be able to do it again. He'd just gotten spooked and slowed down too much after he nearly slid off the road on a few corners. Obviously he'd just slacked too much and needed to get back to driving like this was a race, not a Sunday drive. Yeah, that's the ticket. Just a little faster through the next few turns, and that Benz's headlights would vanish from his rearview mirror. He'd make them vanish, with his faster car.  
  
Coming up to the next turn, he stayed full on the accelerator. For a few nerve-wracking moments he thought he was about to lose it as the car started to sloosh farther to the outside of the turn than he had expected. He came out of the turn a lot closer to the side of the mountain than he had intended, but he was still in control -- and, more importantly -- in one piece.   
  
He glanced in the rearview mirror again, and smiled at what he saw. The Benz's lights had backed off a little. See? Just speed up a little, and it'll all be fine, he thought. He accelerated into the next corner, and then the next with growing confidence.  
  
Pulling out of yet another hair-raising turn he glanced in the mirror again -- and was shocked to see the headlights had disappeared completely! No, he thought. I can't have ditched him that fast, can I? Where else--?  
  
Suddenly realizing what had happened, he looked over to his left. The sight that greeted him confirmed his worst fears. Somehow the Benz had managed to come from behind and was now sitting smack-dab by his side!  
  
"Shit!" he shouted. He didn't know how that rich brat had managed it, but he recognized the position he was in now. There wasn't a racer on Akagi who didn't know the Takahashis' trick of pulling up next to a car on the first half of an S-curve in order to get ahead of them when the inside and outside flipped on the second half of the S. The little snot was trying to pass him.  
  
"Hell if I'm gonna let you!" he shouted. He ground his teeth in irritation as he floored the accelerator in an attempt to use his superior horsepower to pull ahead.  
  
------------------------------------------  
  
Every nerve taut and screamingly alert, Keisuke dove into the first half of the S-turn. He wasn't sure what that idiot in the Silvia thought he was doing, but Keisuke knew for certain that the other car had oversped going into the corner. Splitting his attention between the road ahead, he half-watched, half-sensed what the other car was doing.   
  
"There's no way he can make it," Keisuke muttered tensely under his breath. "Maybe he could pull it out if it was dry, but not in this rain!"  
  
Because he was paying such attention to what the other car was doing, Keisuke noticed instantly the moment the other driver realized his mistake. The other car slowed its acceleration -- probably because the driver had taken his foot off the gas. Responding to some half-sensed thought of what was coming next, Keisuke slammed the accelerator to the floor.   
  
For a frozen moment time seemed to slow. Keisuke watched out of the corner of his eye as the other car jerked hard to the left, changing its heading away from the guard rail -- and straight towards the Benz! The rearview mirror glowed red as the landscape behind was suddenly lit by the Silvia's brake lights. Then the moment was over as the automatic transmission obligingly dropped a gear. The tach needle jumped toward the redline as the power from the engine kicked through the drivetrain to the wheels. The Benz surged ahead, clearing out of the space it had been in mere fractions of a second before the Silvia spun through it. The bumpers of the two cars missed each other by barely a handspan's breadth.   
  
Keisuke focused on keeping control, coming out of the second half of the turn with the guard rail looming a lot closer than originally planned. He brushed by the side of the road so close that his side mirror sheared leaves off the bushes overhanging the side of the road. Clearing the turn, he shot a glance at the rearview mirror. Keisuke realized that he didn't need to keep going. The Silvia had spun out completely, finally stopping when the car's front corner smashed into the guard rail. The race was over. He had won.  
  
----------------------------------------------  
  
Up on top of the mountain, the spectators waited in a eager silence for word on how the race was going. The palpable tension added to the hot closeness of the summer evening until the air itself seemed to wrap around the crowd like a smothering, wet blanket.   
  
Suddenly, the silence was shattered by the ring of a cel phone. A moment later another one rang, and then another. Kenta jumped, as the cel phone he still held in his hand was one of those ringing.  
  
"Hello," he answered. There was a brief paused, followed by an excited tirade of word. "What? He did? How? ... I see. Where? ... Ok, I got it. Thanks for the call!" He clicked off the phone, then turned to Fumihiro who was waiting near by.  
  
"The Silvia driver spun out!" Kenta shouted, half for Fumihiro's benefit, half so that the other people standing near by could hear him. "Keisuke-san won!"  
  
The crowd stirred as the news spread. Here and there, spontaneous cheers broke out.   
  
Fumihiro relaxed visibly. A moment went by while it seemed that he was still trying to parse the news into something comprehensible. Then a big grin broke out across his face. "He really did it. I didn't know if he really could or not."  
  
"I told you he could do it," Kenta responded. "Keisuke-san can do anything!"  
  
------------------------------------------------  
  
His brother was still awake when Keisuke arrived home several hours later. He wandered into Ryousuke's room and sat down on the bed.  
  
"So, you heard?" he asked. He assumed he didn't need to state what he was talking about.  
  
Ryousuke stopped what he was working on on his laptop, and swiveled his chair to face Keisuke. "Yes," he replied, confirming Keisuke's expectation. "Congratulations. So, how was it?"  
  
Keisuke snorted. "It sucked. That Benz has some decent points. But it sucks overall as a performance car." He hesitated for a moment. "Still..."  
  
Ryousuke waited patiently while his brother sorted out what exactly he was trying to say. He knew from long experience that sometimes it took Keisuke some time to articulate exactly what he was thinking.  
  
"You know, Aniki," Keisuke finally said thoughtfully. "It sucked, but I think I learned some things from racing that Silvia. It felt like I was putting together a lot of pieces that I didn't entirely knew that I had. Racing a car that is so much faster than the one you are driving is hard. I knew that before, but I don't think before I ever really felt just how hard it actually is. It would make me mad every time he would pull away from me without any effort on every straightaway. I had to integrate a lot of the details that I'd been picking up from the last few Project D races just to keep up. And if it hadn't been raining, and if that Silvia driver hadn't been an idiot... I don't know if I have the experience to have won without that."   
  
Ryousuke smiled. This was an unexpected benefit from Keisuke excursions this evening. He knew that there were certain lessons which were easier learned on a car with little horsepower. It was pleasing to see Keisuke pick up some of those lessons so quickly -- and on a race that Ryousuke himself had not planned, no less. This was a very positive development. "So, it sounds like you put your time off from D's races to good use tonight."  
  
"Yeah, I guess. Anyway, I'm wiped, I think I'm going to head off to bed." Keisuke got up from the bed, and started to head out of the room. At the doorway he paused.  
  
"I did learn one more thing from the race tonight. I think I do like walking better than driving the Benz!" And with those parting words, he walked out and shut the door behind him.  
-- End  
  
========================================================================  
Author's notes:  
I don't know Mercedes models from squid, and particularly not Japanese Mercedes models. Based on my research, it sounds like the Benz sitting in the Takahashi's garage is a 190E. As far as I can tell, there is not a diesel version of that model, so I changed it to a 300D, for the purposes of author's whim. If that is the worst mistake that I have made in this fic, then I shall rest content. The 300D appears to have had about 154 hp, which makes it very slightly faster than Takumi's Hachiroku at the beginning of the series. It does, however, weight a fair bit more, so I think it all more than balances out.  
  
Continuity-wise, this takes place just after the race between Keisuke and Wataru on M-pass. In the series, there was a race that was cancelled due to rain right about this time. 


End file.
